Maryland’s Community Health Resources Commission (CHRC) has funding for community health resources to provide and expand access to healthcare to low-income underserved communities plus funding to bolster the state’s healthcare safety net infrastructure.
CHRC is a quasi-independent commission within the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene focusing on the state’s network of community health centers and addresses evident service gaps in the state. Over the last four years, CHRC has awarded 78 grants totaling $21.6 million to provide services to more than 94,000 patients resulting in more than 288,000 patient visits.
The CHRC grant program “Aligning Community Health Resources: Improving Access to Care for Marylanders” is considering projects in five categories in this year’s Request for Proposals (RFP).
The five areas include:
• Increasing access to comprehensive women’s health services and reducing infant mortality ($200,000 to $300,000). The goal is to improve reproductive healthcare and birth outcomes, to reduce infant mortality rates and reduce the number of infants born at low and very low birth weights, and increase the percentage of women who begin prenatal care in the first trimester
• Expanding access to dental care for low-income children ($100,000 to $200,000). In Maryland in 2009, 41 percent of children in the state’s Medicaid program did not receive any dental services. The goal is to increase the number of low-income children receiving dental services and boost capacity for oral health services
• Supporting new access points and building healthcare infrastructure in primary care settings ($200,000 to $300,000) to support projects to enable local communities to build integrated, interlocking systems of comprehensive care for low-income or underserved Marylanders
• Integrating behavioral health services in the community ($200,000 to $300,000) to use to integrate mental health and substance abuse services with primary care services, using strategies such as case management services
• Facilitating adoption of health information technology ($150,000 to $300,000). Over the past five years, the CHRC has invested more than $2.9 million in health IT projects. The funding supports IT programs among FQHCs, local health departments, and community providers. Proposals to be considered would help small practices purchase EHR systems, assist community health resources to connect to the HIE, support public health reporting through the HIE, and provide training and education to support advanced operations.
The deadline for the FY 2012 CHRC RFP requires the Letter of Intent to be submitted September 1, 2011, and if selected, the full proposal is to be submitted September 27, 2011. Go to www.dhmh.state.md.us/mchrc/pdf/2011/CHRC-FY-12-Request-for-Proposals-August-18-2011.pdf to view the RFP.
